The Effect of Ethics in Advertising on Consumers

1976 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Background of the study on the effects of advertising on consumer behaviour

The sun is shining and there are palm trees in the distance. A vast beach stretches until the cerulean water washes over the shore. A man is sitting in a beach chair, sipping a beer, while being fanned by multiple woman in string bikinis. The faint sound of crashing waves is in the background. He looks at the camera, and says, “Life is cool.” Then the logo of a popular brand of beer appears on the screen. This television ad for a popular beer is the perfect example of advertising puffery. It exaggerates what will really happen if you drink their brand of beer (AdContexual). It is highly unlikely you’ll attract beautiful woman just by drinking their brand, unless you’re Johnny Depp, of course. A good advertisement creates artificial needs for the viewer (Kilboune). You would probably have the same chance of attracting beautiful woman by drinking any other brand of beer, and most people know this. They also know that most advertisements “stretch the truth“, and everything is not always what it seems (AdContexual). Most people understand that a certain shampoo won’t make them look like the models in the commercial (AdContexual). But at what point does stretching the truth, become unethical? Advertisements are designed to break through the “tuning out process”. They make them flashy, humorous, emotional, anything to get through to the viewer (Kilboune). The ethics in advertising does not follow clear moral standards.

Ethics in advertising depends solely on your beliefs. For instance, if you believe that consumers are rational, self-aware, and skeptical, then you won’t find anything unethical about an ad saying that “Red Bull gives you wings.“ Criticisms range from claiming a sugar-coated cereal is part of a nutritious breakfast, to ...

... middle of paper ...

...m/article.cfm/advertising_to_teens.

Clay, Rebecca A. "Advertising to Children: Is It Ethical?" American Psychology Association. Sept. 2000. http://apa.org/monilov/sep00/advertising.aspx.

Drumwright, MInette E. Caseplace. 2005. http://www.caseplace.org/d.asp?d=2810.

Haas, Anna. "Television and Alcohol Ads Bombarding Teens Continue to Rise." The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. 2008. http://www.camy.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=24.

Kilboune, Jean. "Jesus is a Brand of Jeans." New Internationalist. http://www.newint.org/features/2006/09/01/culture/.

National Institute on Media and the Family. Ed. National Institute on Media and the Family. http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_childadv.shtml.

"Promoting a Future Without Tobacco: Tobacco Advertising." Tobacco Free Kids. http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/docs/advertising.pdf.

Show More
Related

  • Executive Summary of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.

    3923 Words  | 8 Pages

    Fox, RichardJ.;Krugman, Dean M.; Fletcher, James E.;Fischer, Paul M., “Adolescents’ attention to beer and cigarette print ads and associated product warnings.” Journal of Advertising, 9/22/98. vol. 27. p. 57. Online. Electric Library.

    Read More

  • Charmin Toilet Paper Ad

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.

    Read More

  • Political Persuasion Ethics: An Analysis of The Daisy Girl Ad

    1522 Words  | 4 Pages

    Michael R. Hyman; Richard Tansey; James W. Clark (1994). Research on Advertising Ethics: Past, Present, and Future: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 3, Ethics in Advertising pp. 5-15.: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

    Read More

  • Shock Treatment

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every company that has a product to sell wants to have their advertisements grab the attention of the potential buyer. Companies today are competing at high levels to come up with the advertisements that will be flashy and aggressive so consumers will become interested in their product. However, a commercial or an ad might not get the initial point across or cause many viewers to be confused when they see them. Sometimes, what the company is trying to do might offend people. Ethical lines may be walked upon so that the strong points can be presented to the consumer.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Underage Drinking On Underage Drinkers

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alcoholics that are trapped so deep in the spell of alcoholism are leaving a legacy behind for those who continue to make alcohol companies millions of dollars by ruining their lives, making the wrong investment every time they purchase a bottle of alcohol; to them an “alternative route” to mask any issues they might be encountering at a particular time in their lives, and to those alcohol-making companies they are walking fortunes—walking billboards. Advertisement ads for these products continue targeting not only the already alcoholics, but also targeting underage drinkers. These alcohol-making companies can argue differently and have sworn to not be so focused on targeting people under 21. “Alcohol advertisers have pledged to comply with self-regulatory codes designed to limit t...

    Read More

  • Sexualization of Children through the Media

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    Influence on Children Media - History of Media for Children, General Considerations, Studies of Media Influence, Domains of Influence, Recommendations http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2212/Media-Influence-on-Children.html#ixzz1PoYlQRnG

    Read More

  • Deceptive Advertising

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...es controversial issue. What may appear to be a harmless advertisement to one person or group may be very misleading to another. With the increase in technology and the ever increasing use of the internet, consumers remain prime targets for deceptive advertising and marketing practices. Fortunately the laws and monitoring agencies continue to improve and will continue to protect the consumer from many advertising and marketing practices. All in all, although ads might be pleasing to the eye, and make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, just remember they are mostly filled with lies and deceit. Try to study products and know what you are getting yourself into. Buyers…Beware.

    Read More

  • Marketing Ethics: The Ethical Ethics Of Deceptive Advertising

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Introduction In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice.

    Read More

  • Advertising: Information or Manipulation?

    1821 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today’s difficult economy who can afford to spend their hard-earned money carelessly? Americans want good quality and low prices, and businesses that advertise their product make saving money possible. Advertising was created for one reason, so businesses could make known their product (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Some consumers may argue that advertising is not informative, but that it is manipulative because some advertisements make false claims. Fortunately, there are regulations and consumer rights that promote truth in advertising. Consumers must embrace their rights to keep advertising the way it is meant to be. Advertising is meant to be informative and not manipulative, and consumers play a great role in promoting truth in advertising.

    Read More

  • Influence Of Media On Delinquency

    1699 Words  | 4 Pages

    Parents need to know when their child is exposed to media parent involvement that includes positive guidance on appropriate use of all media that includes internet, music, television, and video games. All media has the possibility to develop positive and negative effects on children and adolescents. Depending on the child’s developmental stage determines if the effect will be

    Read More

  • Advertising to Children Must Be Banned

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kravis, Anders. “Stop Advertising to Children.” Online video. Youtube. Youtube, 5 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Exploitation Of Children In Television Advertising

    4398 Words  | 9 Pages

    Across America in homes, schools, and businesses, sits advertisers' mass marketing tool, the television, usurping freedoms from children and their parents and changing American culture. Virtually an entire nation has surrendered itself wholesale to a medium for selling. Advertisers, within the constraints of the law, use their thirty-second commercials to target America's youth to be the decision-makers, convincing their parents to buy the advertised toys, foods, drinks, clothes, and other products. Inherent in this targeting, especially of the very young, are the advertisers; fostering the youth's loyalty to brands, creating among the children a loss of individuality and self-sufficiency, denying them the ability to explore and create but instead often encouraging poor health habits. The children demanding advertiser's products are influencing economic hardships in many families today. These children, targeted by advertisers, are so vulnerable to trickery, are so mentally and emotionally unable to understand reality because they lack the cognitive reasoning skills needed to be skeptical of advertisements. Children spend thousands of hours captivated by various advertising tactics and do not understand their subtleties.

    Read More

  • Advertising: The Influence Of Advertising

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    Advertising has influenced teenagers in a profound way. The influence of advertising has affected teenagers in a way they are persistently exposed to by means of television programs, articles in magazines, product endorsement ads, and through the internet. Although teenagers are excessively exposed, how they perceive and process advertisements ultimately determines how they are influenced. With that said, the perception towards advertisements can be amalgamated between reality and fantasy, which evidently has both negative and positive impacts. Advertisers strategically capitalize on what is trending in youth culture, which makes teenagers most pervasive to wanting to fit in.

    Read More

  • The Use of Unethical Advertising in Business

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Advertising works best if it targets the people who would likely to use the product . Therefore , many unethical things are done to place advertisements in places . People do not know what actually they need , they would not know what to buy . Because of these facts , in order to get the attention of consumers , companies try all kind of advertising tactics even if they involve illegal and dirty tricks . One of the well-known illegal trick is called “bait and switch”. This tactic is mainly about placing an advertisement for a particular object at tremendous value . Then ,customers get into store and could not find the object, because it is no longer available . While they are so sad about what they missed , they automatically direct themselves to a similar product which is not good as previous but most of the time they feel satisfied . These tactics do not only influence adults , they influence kids as well . There is huge amount of ethical concerns about advertising which relates with children .Children may get the wrong impression a...

    Read More

  • The Power of Advertising

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.

    Read More

More about The Effect of Ethics in Advertising on Consumers

Open Document